Our featured artist today is Katherine Bennett. Katherine lives and works in Orlando, Florida, where she creates playful, illustrative oil paintings depicting such subjects as girls, handbags and farm animals.

Katherine’s works have a certain delicacy to them that’s interesting and really inviting for the viewer. In her series of Girls in Masks paintings, the subject matter is portrayed with a literal frankness that’s both refreshing and intriguing. Each painting focuses on a central female figure wearing a black mask that calls to mind both superheroes and cartoon cat burglars. The stark black masks contrast with the muted pastel tones and mundane activities portrayed in the paintings to draw the viewer directly to the eyes of each figure.

Katherine’s Goats and Chickens series features numerous, lovingly rendered paintings of the aforementioned animals. These realistic renderings on stark, monochromatic backgrounds remind me of the work of Lesli Devito with similar subjects.

About the author

Dallas Jeffs is the Editor of Artist Run Website's blog. She is a recent graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she studied Critical and Cultural Practices. She is passionate about talking and writing about art, and sharing that interest with others. In her studio practice she is a painter, but she considers herself an art writer and educator foremost. If you like art, books and culture with a science fiction twist, check out Dallas' personal blog, HappySpaceNoises